Let me in
by Majinie
Summary: Wanda Maximoff is all the proof Bruce needed to know that he is not and will never be stable. The incident tosses him back into less peaceful times and he ends up back in Kolkata where he is less likely to harm anyone, less likely to lose control. It's better that way. For some reason, Tony doesn't seem to agree with him. [Science Boyfriends]


The day Natasha Romanov had appeared in his life, Bruce had known that following her was a bad idea. Possibly the worst that he'd had in a very long time. It wasn't like he had a real choice though, it had been either coming with her and helping her or hurting people while he resisted. And oh, how tired he was of hurting people.

To his surprise, the one he had been most comfortable around had been Tony Stark. He had been intimidated at first – the man's brash introduction and his cocky behaviour would have been sure baits for his alter ego to snatch at in any other person. Tony managed to set him at ease, simply because he wasn't afraid. He didn't flinch as soon as Bruce made a move into his direction, he joked and playfully taunted, he... he seemed like he was just happy to have found someone who could keep up with him and didn't care what was underneath. He was natural and Bruce hadn't met anyone in years who _knew_ and acted that... normal around him. It was probably the reason why he had taken Tony up on the offer of moving into Avengers Tower.

"Doctor Banner?", the quiet voice of a little girl interrupted his thoughts. The scientist rolled onto his side and squinted to make out her shape in the dark.

"Yes, what is it?", he asked softly, the Hindi rolling slightly rough off his tongue.

"Ajeet is thrashing around again", she whispered and he reached for his glasses in the darkness as he told her to go ahead.

A small, bitter smile graced his lips, invisible in the dark of the night. Now he was back here, fearing for the lives of children who were too poor to afford anyone else to look after them. Funny how one girl with some mind-controlling powers could change so much. Wanda Maximoff had proved to him that he would never truly be in control of his alter ego. No matter how hard he tried not to, he would always end up hurting someone. That was really not something anyone would want on their team.

The Fidjis had been wonderful, beautiful, yeah – but it had felt so very wrong. To stretch out on a beach, shone on by the sun and surrounded by hearty people, contently sipping a drink with a paper umbrella after he had endangered other people's life through his own flaws? There were people out there who could pull that off, but Bruce Banner was not one of them.

So instead of lounging around on a beach with a bad conscience, he had returned to India – Kolkata. It felt like a circle closing. Admittedly, he had been surprised to see that the house he had lived in before was occupied by a small family now (small as in a couple with three children), but since one of the two boys was sick with some sort of fever, Bruce was staying here until he got better. Afterwards... well, he'd find something. He always did, after all.

By the time he got back to bed (if you could call the thin mattress with the torn blanket that), it dawned outside and he was asleep in less than a minute. It felt like he had only just closed his eyes when the girl's voice woke him up again.

Sighing, he slurred: "Wha' is it, Devi? 's Ajeet..."

"No", she interrupted, shaking her head. "You have a visitor."

He blinked and noticed the sunlight streaming on through the window. He couldn't have slept too long and his sleep wasn't really restful, anyway. Sleeping longer wouldn't really help him, so he could as well get up and take care of the patient who was apparently waiting for him. He had made a name amongst the homeless of the place in his time before the Avengers Initiative roped him in, and now that he was back, the word about it had spread like a wildfire.

Running a hand through his messy curls, he got up and tried to shake his sleepiness off. He'd slept in his clothes so he just smoothed his shirt out as much as possible and opened the door: "How can I – what the hell?"

Tony Stark, leaning in the doorframe, flashed him a brilliant smile as he asked cheekily: "Brucie! Did you miss me?" The physicist just stared at him for a moment. Dressed in a probably way too expensive suit, complete with tie and dress shirt, Tony looked ridiculously out of place, contrasting with the dull colours of the slum. He held the suitcase armour in one hand. "Whoa, no need to be so enthusiastic", he said, raising his free hand in an ironic, soothing gesture, when Bruce merely kept gaping wordlessly.

"Tony", he eventually stated.

"The one and only", the billionaire confirmed. "Thank God, you can still talk, I thought I'd broke you."

"Tony, why are you here?", Bruce demanded.

"And we're back to full sentences, bless the Lord", Tony quipped. "And well, that's a difficult question. Some would say that there's a higher might deciding things like that, but I like to think that it started with a really big bang, and from then on, stars and planets..."

" _Tony_ ", the physicist interrupted, "why are you _here_."

"Here? As in, on your doorstep?", Tony inquired. "What does it look like? I'm visiting a friend. Aren't you going to invite me in?"

"You're not going to leave if I don't, are you?"

"Of course not."

Bruce sighed and warned while stepping aside: "It's not pretty though."

"Nothing for spoiled billionaires, is that what you're trying to say?", Tony asked with a wink while entering. He looked around and commented: "Not judging here, but I'm really surprised that you chose this over Avengers tower. It's so..."

"Amazing how you managed to forget about _Not judging_ over the course of one sentence", the scientist chimed in while he cleared the table of some books on various diseases. From the corner of his eye, he could see Tony studying the titles as he stacked them into a pile.

Then, he saw the inventor's eyes widen and Tony leaned towards him, nodded into the direction of Ajeet's bed with Devi sitting next to it and whispered: "Those – those aren't... they're not... I mean, not judging, but they're not _yours_ , are they?"

Bruce chuckled quietly and shook his head. "They just happened to move in here while I was away and it's not like I could tell them to leave or something. Besides, one of the boys is ill and it's good to have him nearby, anyway." He shoved the last of the books aside. "Please, be my guest", he said with a gesture to one of the well-used chairs. The engineer eyed it suspiciously before carefully sitting down. "Now, do you mind telling me how you found me?"

"Is that an actual question?", the billionaire asked with one of his cocky grins. "Come on, Bruce, I've got resources. I've got satellites. With cameras. I've got JAR-" He cleared his throat. "FRIDAY, I mean. It's not that difficult."

"Are you telling me that you let a facial recognition program run over the whole world until you found me?", Bruce asked slowly.

"Uh... yeah?" Tony looked almost sheepish, but was still smiling.

"You don't have a satellite with the means to do something like that", the physicist pointed out. "Please tell me you didn't hack the NASA."

"What do you _think_ of me?!", Tony exclaimed, arms held high. Bruce cocked an eyebrow at him and after a few seconds, the engineer sighed. "Okay, so I might or might not have done that. But I didn't use their satellites!"

"Didn't you now", Bruce muttered drily.

Tony shook his head vehemently. "I really didn't. I mean, I planned to, but the software was horrible, so..."

"So what? You built your own and shot it into space?", the scientist asked sarcastically. When Tony didn't answer, but just shrugged very slowly, his eyes widened and he repeated: "Oh my God. You built your own satellite and shot it into space." Another shrug and a sheepish smile. "You built a satellite to search for _me_." He shook his head and laughed disbelievingly. "You're insane."

To his surprise, Tony's face lit up like a Christmas tree. " _Finally_ , a smile, I thought I'd never get to see that again."

"But- but _why_?", Bruce asked.

"Why? Because you look more unhappy than when I first met you at the Helicarrier and it's really painful to look at", the engineer answered promptly and Bruce grimaced. "Sorry, that wasn't very subtle."

"No, it wasn't", the physicist agreed. "But that's not what I meant. I meant you, searching for me like that. Why... why would you do that?"

For the first time, Tony hesitated before he replied: "Because it's horribly lonely without you in my lab and DUM-E misses you. By the way, I've waited almost two months for you to come back on your own." Although he was still smiling, Bruce knew him long enough to tell that it wasn't said as jokingly as Tony wanted it to sound. But still...

"I can't come back, Tony", he said slowly. "I'm... I'm just... I can't."

The engineer was silent for a while and Bruce averted his eyes to stare out of the window. Eventually, there was a softly spoken question: "It's because of that Maximoff kid, isn't it?" The physicist shrugged uncomfortably. "You know, she's not our enemy anymore. That won't happen again."

"I know, but it's... it's a general thing", he responded hesitantly. "I could lose control anytime, Tony, there's not just one possible cause for it."

"And it's better if it happens here than when it happens where I'm there to help out with Veronica?"

That hit home and for a moment, he just watched his own hands fidgeting on the table. Eventually, he muttered: "It's just much less likely to happen here than when I'm... I... I'm just not the hero type. The other guy is far too unpredictable for that."

"Oh, come on, Jolly Green isn't..."

"Please stop it", Devi suddenly chimed in, her English rough and tinted with a heavy accent. Bruce had noticed her watching them from Ajeet's bed, but now she had stepped up beside him and stared at Tony out of her big, dark eyes. "You're making him sad."

Tony blinked at her and stated, surprised: "She speaks English."

Bruce smiled fondly and explained: "This is Devi. She's really bright, I'm teaching her some medical skills. And English is a second language in India, Tony." The engineer chuckled sheepishly. "Admittedly, they don't speak it much here in the slums. But Devi is good at it. She will turn ten next month, won't you?" The little girl nodded, still looking at their guest, who raised his eyebrows at the physicist at this blatant change of topic. Slowly enough for her to understand, Bruce said: "Devi, this is Tony Stark. He is a friend of mine."

"Hello, Mr Stark", she greeted politely, but she still seemed apprehensive.

"Nice to meet you, Devi", Tony said. Turning towards his friend, he remarked: "She's protective, isn't she."

"She means well", Bruce replied. "Devi, Tony is a very nice person. He doesn't make me sad."

"But you looked sad", she responded in Hindi, her dark eyes focussed on him. She was really perceptive – with the right tutoring, she would make a great doctor one day.

"It's not his... his..." He searched for the word, but would probably still have to work on his Hindi skills before he could have a real conversation. After a moment, he just said: "He didn't do it." She seemed to understand anyway and nodded.

"Well then", Tony piped up, "I better be off then, right?" He stood up, grabbing the suitcase armour. Bruce couldn't help the small sting of disappointment he felt, although it had been _him_ who had told the inventor that he wouldn't come back with him. "You know my number if you need anything, Brucie. Just call."

"Well, uh, I..." The physicist, having stood up as well, shuffled his feet awkwardly. "About that..."

"You ditched your phone, didn't you?", Tony guessed with a grin that was half exasperated, half amused. Bruce nodded and watched his friend reach into his pocket to pull out one of his Stark Phones. He tapped away on it for some moments and then handed it over to the scientist. "There you go. You, uh..." He looked around. "Recharging will probably be difficult here, but these babies have a legendary battery, it should last quite some time. Also, you've got access to JARVIS – I, uh, I mean, FRIDAY, so there's that. Don't hesitate to call me should you need something or... you know." He shrugged. "Wanna call, just for the sake of calling."

"Tony, I can't accept..."

"Of course you can, we were over that already, didn't we?", Tony interrupted his protests. "Me, billionaire, manufacturing these things? I've got more than enough of them. Keep it."

"If I don't, I'll probably find it miraculously on my doorstep or in my bed tomorrow, won't I?", Bruce asked drily.

"You will", the engineer confirmed with a grin. "Catch you later, then."

"Probably", Bruce agreed and let Tony pull him into a short hug. "'til then."


End file.
